Why do I feel scared while sleeping?

It can be quite distressing to feel scared during sleeping time, and can even lead to sleep disturbance besides affecting your next day's productivity. It is however important to know a few things before one would be able to definitely say as to what one is suffering from. The important questions would be:

• The feelings of scare occur in which part of the sleep - early - as soon as you go to bed, middle - you get up in the middle of the night, late or after you get to sleep.
• What thoughts go through your mind then?
• How long do you remain scared for?
• How easily you are able to get to sleep thereafter?
• What do you experience when you feel scared for e.g.: do you sweat , do you problems breathing, do you start feeling hot or cold, do you scream, does your heart go fast?
• What do you do to cope with this problem?
• Do you drink alcoholic drinks?
• Do you smoke?
• Do you have any physical illnesses for e,g asthma, sleep apnoea disorder?
• Do you have mental health related problems?

Once you are able to go through this list along with a physician - it would become very easy to understand this experience better and decide if you are having a sleep disorder like night terrors or nightmares or panic attacks or something else which would require specific therapy with medications and sleep hygiene techniques.